


Five Time The Flash Saved the Rogues, One Time They Saved Him

by NekoTiara



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Aftermath of Torture, At least Mark thinks so, BAMF!Mick, Eiling is a douche, Flash is God, Implied/Referenced Torture, Leonard & Lisa Snart Sibling Feels, M/M, Military, Pain, Pining, Relationship Study, Rogues being good people, Roy Bivolo knows better, Smart!Mick, Sorry Not Sorry, Violence, barry is a puppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-04 10:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11553579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoTiara/pseuds/NekoTiara
Summary: Five times that Barry - as the Flash - saved the Rogues and one time he had to be saved.





	1. The Trickster Jr.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I'm terrified while doing this, so, please, be honest if you review :) 
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise things would be so much funnier! Everything belongs to DC and CW except some minor OCs that don't matter.
> 
> Some things that need saying: English is not my native language, so even if I had revised these work at least a thousand times, there are going to be mistakes, I apologize. Also, it's finished, I'll try to update at least every two days. What I cannot confirm are the last two chapter (7 and 8) because those are bonuses and not part of the 5+1 :)
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Barry hadn’t been thinking. Really, he had ran on instinct. One moment he was avoiding bombs falling from the sky, the next he had a Trickster in his arms and was checking for injuries on the Rogue. He had even let him get away afterwards! And how it all started? With a pair of flying boots. Fascinating turn of events, right? How did he go from fighting a flying Trickster to saving a falling  Trickster?

 

It had all started earlier that evening, he had been running on the treadmill, which was part of his weekly check ups as Caitlin liked to call them, for Barry it felt more like “let’s just run a ton of tests on Barry until his doctor gets bored”. Regarding these tests, he let her do anything to him, mostly because he knew why Caitlin was so adamant about it. It had been - so far - one of those rare days where everything was quiet, no crimes going on and Barry got to spend some time at the labs instead of running around. Suddenly, the alarm had gone off and Cisco checked the computers, his voice sounding through the speakers. 

 

“Trickster Jr. is creating havoc at Central City Park, bomb-gifts are falling from the sky!” Gifts? “Doesn’t it get old? I mean, he always uses the same trick!” The engineer complained, as Barry flashed in to grab his suit and he would love to hear more but...

 

Barry didn’t have time for that: he flashed away as soon as the zipper of his suit was up. A few heartbeats - normal human heartbeats - later, he was standing in the middle of the park, looking up to the Trickster flying above him. Great, just another complication during a fight. He looked around, looking for Trickster Sr. or any other Rogue who were ready to jump on him because he got distracted by those boots. Maybe he could get those boots to Cisco later, his friend would probably love to study them.

 

“Guys, check the perimeter for Hartley, those boots have his signature all over them.” And Barry knew the Pied Piper was a Rogue now, hell, all Central City knew it already, Rathaway wasn’t exactly subtle. “I don’t want surprises here!” 

 

And he launched himself to get the Trickster without touching the gifts, because getting bombed? Not fun at all. 

 

“I don’t see other Rogues around, not even Hartley, Barry, Axel is probably on his own now.” Caitlin’s voice was calm through the comms, giving him the confirmation that Axel was alone after a few seconds of checking the cameras around the park. 

 

“Get him with one of your Lightning Punch, Barry! That should do the trick!” Barry started running in circles around the Trickster, energy building up. Bombs started falling closer and closer to him. 

 

“Come on, Flash! That’s all you got! Mardon can do it better!” Axel laughed and tossed more bombs, where was he hiding so many bombs anyways!? 

 

Barry gritted his teeth and was ready to launch his Lighting Punch when he saw the boots smoking, he stopped dead on his track, looking at shoes, intrigued. Jr. looked down to them as well, shocked, which indicated that it wasn’t planned. Suddenly, he was falling down, it looked like the boots had suddenly stopped working and Axel wasn’t really that high, but Barry, fight and bombs forgotten, ran to the falling boy and caught him just in time to avoid further injuries on the Rogue. They skid to a stop and Barry left the boy on the ground, looking for any injuries. 

 

“You saved me?” Trickster was looking at him with something strange on his eyes, not fury, not hate… something else. The speedster didn’t give it a second thought, as concerned as he was about the other man’s well being. If he hadn’t broken Axel’s fall, the guy could have broken his neck and died and maybe that was being pessimistic, but his instincts had been yelling at him to save the Rogue, despite being enemies.

 

“Are you alright, Trickster?” And, all of the sudden, he was hit with the Trickster’s bag in the face, and as soon as he got free, Axel ran away without looking back. He didn’t look back so the hero couldn’t see his flushed face. On the other hand, Barry couldn’t find it in himself to chase the other man. Mostly because he looked ridiculous running away in those boots. “Guys, I’m heading back, I’m sure I’m going to get call in by the CCPD really soon.”

 

Meanwhile, in an anonymous warehouse, Axel was being pressed by a furious Hartley Rathaway against the wall. His racing heart, if he ever was asked about it, was because the Pied Piper looked hot when angry and not because the Flash, finest hero in the world, had saved him from at least a few broken bones. 

 

“You took my boots! They are in early Alpha testing stage! What were you thinking of,  _ idiota _ !?” Said boots were currently on the table, completely dead, though Piper hadn’t even bothered checking them up once Axel arrived, wearing them and retelling his fight with the Flash but Hartley didn’t even bothered to listen, his mind too preoccupied for it, so much that he couldn’t even think before he was fast on his feet and cornering the damn idiot who had risked his life for what? Fun? Yeah, Hartley didn’t didn’t it funny at all. 

 

“Come on, Hart, kid wasn’t probably thinking.” Bivolo and Mardon, who did bothered to listen, got in between, separating them before Hartley even thought of getting more physical with the younger Rogue.

 

“I don’t give a fuck! He could have gotten himself killed!” Eh? The older metas looked at each other and realisation came upon them: Hartley Rathaway was worried about Axel, not the boots, in their books, he didn’t give a shit about the goddamn boots. 

 

“Oh…” They turned around to Jr. who looked relieved. “Bad, bad Trickster.” Said Mardon, lips twitching slightly, amused by this turn of events, this was so much funnier that they had even dared imagine. 

 

“You might have to treat Hart to dinner, Axel.” Continued Bivolo. Playing matchmaker was so funny for them, they might not want for Piper to get physical with Axel, but getting those two together? That was another story. After all, every single Rogue knew how those two looked at each other when they thought nobody was looking at them and they had been dancing around each other for months now, which admittedly was getting old.

 

Then, all of the sudden, Hartley Rathaway was less growly and he getting more and more flustered, blush high on his cheeks, knowing this two’s intentions. 

  
“¡ _ Imbéciles _ !” He roared and left, grabbing on his way out, the boots halfheartedly. Axel went after him, calling for the tech kid, and the older men, well, they high-fived.


	2. Golder Glider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heist in Central City National Bank goes... awry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos, bookmarks, reviews and altogether, the support. I apologize for any mistake and I hope you like it :)

 

It had happened in Central City National Bank. This time, Lisa and Mick had been alone, Cold nowhere to be found, which wasn’t so rare these days. Lisa had been getting the money into bags and Rory had been keeping everyone in check. It had been so easy to subdue everyone that it was laughable, that didn’t meant that they were overconfident. No, overconfidence got people killed in their line of work. Still, idiots were to happen, especially in a bank with more that fifteen people to one criminal, no matter how threatening the criminal was. That was how a stupid man with a gun got to slip away, going toward the vault where the female criminal was at the moment. Flash got in there a few seconds later, ready to fight Heatwave and paying no attention to the vault, Lisa would have to go through him to get out of the bank anyways.

 

“Oh, Flash! How nice from you to show up!” Mick roared, gun pointing at the speedster, this was going to be so much interesting now! He fired a blast of fire, which was nothing the metahuman couldn’t avoid easily. 

 

Mick was one of the Rogues and he was loyal to a fault, so he wouldn’t risk innocent people’s lives, or use them to get one over the hero, for that part, Barry was not worried at all and decided to focus on avoiding the shots to save his ass from getting burnt. In between blasts, Barry was getting closer and closer, ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat - at superspeed because he couldn’t fight for shit - with the thief, get him knocked out, maybe tie him so the police - who was on their way - could apprehend him. Fire and lightning were dancing around the bank and everyone was looking eagerly at the fight between those two. Their lives were in no danger, no, those two had total control over their fight, making sure that they were safely out of the way. What could break the scene? Well, a gunshot. Everything froze. By the sound of it, the bullet didn’t get to its target and hit metal instead. Nonetheless, it was worrying when a gun was fired in an inclosed space. 

 

Flash stood still, Rory, suddenly tense, copied his posture: both men looking towards the vault waiting for a sound, movement, anything really. Mick looked at Flash and, more serious this time, shot his heat gun. The Flash, who didn’t react on time, still distracted by the gunshot, got hit square in the chest. It was only thanks to his suit that the injury wasn’t too serious and he could still move instead of going down. He ran straight to the vault, unable to draw in oxygen, fear coursing through his veins, he got there just a second after Mick, who was standing at the door, frowning at the scene in front of him.

 

His first thought when he heard the shot was that the Rogues had broken the deal that Cold and he had, that someone had died because he had decided that Heatwave was more important than Lisa. What he wasn’t expecting was to find Lisa Snart pointing her gun at an armed man who was, in turn, pointing his gun at her, Rory standing at the door, looking over at the man and then to Lisa, there was doubt in his eyes, like he was measuring the amount of shit they were in. Barry looked at Golden, looking for injuries. As predicted, the bullet hadn’t done much damage. Yeah, the leather jacket that Lisa was wearing had a graze, but no blood had been drawn. Her eyes were ice cold, her normal, flirtatious smile gone, her lips pulled into a thin line, she looked more than ever just like her brother. 

 

“Dare to shoot at me again and you will make a fine gold statue, asshole.” The threat wasn’t real, Barry saw immediately that she didn’t even have her finger on the trigger. And normally, nothing would happen because people got really terrified when a super gun like that one was pointed at them, but this man… well, he was stupid. 

 

“I’m not going to let you leave with the money, bitch!” Before Barry could react, the gun was fired again, twice. Everything blurred around him as he moved forward, pushing Lisa out of the way.

 

Lisa tensed, waiting for the pain, but pain never arrived. Suddenly, she found herself in the corner of the vault, pressed against the wall and all she saw was red. Red and a pair of green eyes looking straight at her, concern written all over that young face. Her hand reached out to his shoulder without her noticing, not daring to touch him. Blood was oozing from a bullet wound in his shoulder, she looked up to his eyes again, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore, his eyes were on the man who had been punched by Rory and lay unconscious on the floor. Lisa pressed her hand against the injury, blood was warm against her fingertips, a reminder that the Flash, despite his abilities, was human. 

 

“You saved me, Flash.” She smiled, still surprised that the superhero had taken a bullet for her of all people. But Barry was more concerned about her than about himself. Such a self-sacrificing hero he was. 

 

“Are you alright, Golden Glider?” There were no injuries on her, he got up and help her up with his good arm, he was stronger than he looked like, she noticed with a strange feeling in her chest. “Leave, leave before the cops arrive.” 

 

As soon as he said that, Rory looked up, looking at Lisa and then at the Flash, measuring the hero. The whole business hadn’t taken more than a minute or two, but Lisa felt like time had stretched around them and she felt like hours had passed by without her noticing. Maybe that was normal when Flash was there, like time got dragged out in his presence and it affected everyone, even those who just saw his lightning dancing around the room. 

 

Flash didn’t have to tell them twice to leave before the cops arrived. Hearing the sirens near by, they ran away, loot forgotten. On his end, Barry was just glad that he hadn’t been hit this time. He ran away too, he had more pressing matters to deal with than police officers. Man, getting the bullet out was going to hurt like hell and Cisco was going to yell at him for ruining the suit. Again. Why stupid people got gun permits? There should be a law against that.

 

“Lenny, please, stop pestering me!” They had just arrived to her safehouse of preference and Mick had called her brother almost immediately, telling him about their failure of a heist. Though Len had been more concerned about her. Right now was making sure that she hadn’t in fact been injured. “The Flash saved me!” 

 

Whoa, it sounded surreal even to her that had been there when the metahuman took a bullet for her and she had seen him bleeding. Hell, she still got blood staining her hand as proof that it had happened. That got her brother’s attention. 

 

“He pushed me against a wall, he got injured, not me, look.” She showed him her hand, smiling at his dumbstruck brother. 

 

“Well, then maybe I should send him a get-well present” Len took her hand between his. “And a thank-you-for-saving-my-sister present.” He went for a cloth to clean Barry’s blood from his sister’s hand, noticing that his own hands were shaking slightly. 

 

“Or you could just invite him over and have sex with him.” Len looked at her, unamused. 

 

“Shut up, Lise.” Lisa couldn’t help but smile, oh, brother dearest just couldn’t admit he had a crush on the Flash, but she knew, she had always known. Somehow she got it, feeling all that power against her body had been thrilling to say the least, what a pity that his brother had called dibs, and that her heart was for another man.

 

“He has pretty eyes.” Leonard snorted at her sister’s antics. 

 

“Shut. Up.” Still, he had to admit that his sister was right: Barry did have the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen... Fuck.


	3. Weather Wizard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eiling makes a move against a God-like metahuman. It backfires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to apologize for any typo/mistake and thank you for your support, it makes me want to keep on writing Flash's fanfics :) 
> 
> And by the way, the next three chapter are my favourites, hope you like them as well! :D

If there was a Rogue that stood above the others when it came to raw power, it was Mark Mardon. God-like abilities contained in a revengeful man. He had almost leveled Central City once, even if no one remembered, not even himself. So, who would have thought that he needed saving? Nobody! Mostly because he was a God-like metahuman who knew how to control his powers well enough to even make himself fly around Central City. That was what made him a perfect target. That fact that he was so powerful made the military want to trap him inside a cell and dissect him like a bug, take him apart until they could produce super-soldiers with his abilities. 

 

The military had even taken the time to watch him, study him, his habits and his abilities. They had worked a way to prevent him from using his powers  enough time to get him into a cell where he could be under their total control. What was even better, he was a criminal with no family, nobody would miss him or want him back, he was the perfect individual for experimentation. At this point, nobody could nor would get between their target and them, because if they could stop a God-like meta, was there anyone powerful enough to stop them? Well, the answer was simple: Yes, there was. The Flash wasn’t going to let them get their hands on another metahuman, Bette had been enough collateral damage and he had promised himself that he would never let the military put a metahuman through the same experience. There wouldn’t be any more casualties: not another Bette or another Firestorm in their grasp. 

 

And still, there they were. A group of soldiers were pointing their guns at Mardon, his powers dampered by a machine on top of one of the trucks. He was slightly bruised, still prideful, already thinking of how to break out of military-level prison and get revenge after getting out, but hurting. If it weren’t for that machine that prevented him of using his powers to get the hell away of those freaks... The soldiers were marching towards him, ready to take him away or put him down like a dog if he even dared to fight back again. They didn’t need him alive, it was a plus but not a necessity. 

 

And suddenly, in front of Mark Mardon stood a sole man. The Flash. Tall, proud, confident and furious, so furious that lightning was crackling around him. His stance was daring anyone to take another step, to try and take Mark away. Mark, who had gotten on his knees, felt thankful, he was watching one of his enemies’ back as it was: a wall of protection, a safety net. And despite the fact that they had fought a lot of times, Mardon had injured the hero more than once, the Scarlet Speedster was there, protecting him, making sure that no harm came his way. A realisation came down to him: if there was a God here, that was the Flash. Forgiving, caring, trustworthy and powerful, a God in human skin indeed. 

 

“Leave now.” His voice was charged with electricity. “Before I make you leave.” Mark saw that the soldiers, who were mere humans, who took a step back, had come to the same conclusion as him and they were terrified, because God could forgive but he would also punish, be heartless and take them apart without remorse. They knew it, except for one stupid man who took a step forward. He wasn’t carrying any weapon, like he felt way too comfortable in his own skin, like he felt undefeatable. Hm, stupid human daring to go against someone like the Flash.

 

“What is the meaning of this? Does the Flash protects criminals now?” He barked, laughing at Flash. Overconfidence was a sin but for this man, it didn’t matter.

 

Flash darted  fast, stopping in front of the man, almost chest to chest. Mark noticed that despite the fact that the man was taller than the Flash, in front of that God of Speed, he seemed so little, so powerless and so suddenly scared, overconfidence put away as the younger man that had been standing a few feets in front of him moved so suddenly. Maybe the sudden rush of fear was because no one could follow the man’s movements just see the red lightning left behind and during that second that it took for the Flash to move around, no one knew what was going to happen. 

 

“This is my city, Eiling, and I protect everyone living in here. Even criminals. Now, it’s your choice: either you leave or you face the consequences for your actions, general.” The soldier took a step back, face pale, like he had seen the ire of God, the promise of pain and demise in those eyes filled with lightning. 

 

“You will pay for this, Flash. I promise you, you will regret this… stunt.” Yet they left, taking their goddamn machine with them and Mardon could finally breathe again. Once they left, the Flash was by his side and Weather Wizard could taste the ozone around the man. 

 

“Can you walk, Weather Wizard?” Hell, he even kneeled beside a criminal!

 

Mardon looked at Flash’s eyes, not so golden now but a darker shade of green than what he was used to see when facing the hero. He was impressed, he had gotten see both sides of God today: his fury and his love. He had faced those armed men, fearless, like he knew that he wouldn’t have to lift a finger to get them to retreat like the cockroaches they were. Now he was kneeling beside an enemy, worried but still fearless, more concerned about Mardon’s safety than his own. Which normally would be a mistake, but today? Today Mardon would give anything to worship the Flash in every way he could think of.

 

“Mardon?” Something jolted inside Mark, something that he couldn’t name, but he stood and Flash did followed him. Mark couldn’t help but notice that he even stood with the grace of gods. “Do you want me to take you somewhere?” His heart was beating faster than ever, he couldn’t utter a word, he could only watch this man, this God, until the image of him was burnt into his brain. 

 

“Cisco, can you get me a location for a Rogues’ safehouse? Or ask Lisa where I can find Peek-a-Boo, I think Mardon needs a doctor.” Mardon wasn’t giving him any answers, the weatherman was just staring at him and Barry couldn’t leave him there, the military could still be around, waiting for him to leave Mardon alone to snatch him away. 

 

“One moment, Barry, I’m calling Lisa now.” Flash squeezed Mardon’s shoulder in reassurement. 

 

“You will be fine, Mardon, I promise.” The older man looked at that hand, and like a spell had been broken, he pulled away. 

 

“I don’t need your help, Flash.” He had to use all his self-control, focus his attention on his movements, to pull away and walk down the street. “And this changes nothing! I still hate you and your group of goody-two-shoes.”

 

Later that night, when he was alone at Saints and Sinners, nursing a beer, Cold walked in, going straight to the stool right next to him. With a nod, the smug bastard got himself a beer, but otherwise said nothing for a few minutes. Mardon suspected the man loved the sound of his own voice too much to ever shut up.

 

“Are we going to have an issue with the military, Mardon?” Mark looked at him, wondering for a minute what to reply. He wasn’t even surprised that the leader of the Rogues knew about the military. Probably the Flash - or someone in his team - had told him about the military going after one of the Rogues.

 

“I don’t think the military want to try their luck against the Flash.” Against God. And if they were, well, Mark didn’t like owing people shit.

 

“Next time, you call us. As soon as you see one of them, you call, Mardon. We are here to watch each other’s back.” After that, they finally fell into a peaceful silence, both just drinking their beers but sharing similar thoughts - about the fastest hero wearing red leather and going around Central City saving the day -; not that they needed to know it.


	4. Rainbow Raider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bivolo and Mardon attack, people fall in love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy this new chapter :)

Roy Bivolo had been angry a lot of time. Almost all his life he had been angry: at his parents, at himself, at his teachers, at his art… Anger had been a constant and some days, he hadn’t felt anything else, just pure, unadulterated anger. Despite this, Bivolo was a man of emotion, he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but over the years he had gotten pretty good at reading people around him, it had saved his life more than once. Still, anger had been the one emotion that had never failed him, the one that he knew like the back of his hand: easy to read, easy to deal with. It had also been the first emotion that he had learnt to control once he got his powers. Another emotion he had was also good with, was fear. Because he had also been afraid a lot of time, afraid of his father, afraid of the bullies, afraid of rejection... Though right now, with his life on the line, he felt calm, he wasn’t scared for his life, and certainly, not angry.

A few days ago, he had let Mardon convince him to go against the Flash. There hadn’t been any real anger behind the petition, Roy would have known, but he decided that he had nothing else to do and looking at the Flash was always like being hit by the muses. The man wore his heart on his sleeve, every bit of emotion - and he could go from angry to happy in less than a second - showed in his green-hazel eyes, in his mouth and his whole body. After the particle accelerator exploded, Roy dwelled on emotions, thus, watching the Flash was like having the whole spectrum of emotions, of colours, at the same time in front of him. Roy loved going against the hero of Central City. He loved it more than he was ever going to admit. Mostly because he didn’t wanted to get iced by their boss.

So, there they were. Standing in front of the Flash, in a tall building, Mark wanted to shut down the city, at least the residential part where no hospital were to be involved. After all, no killing rule still applied. And for a few minutes, everything had gone smoothly: they broke into the electric plant and they had climbed to the top, from there the view was amazing, if Roy had only thought of bringing some paper and some pencils…

“Looks like the speedster is coming.” Mark was readying lightning, aiming at the boxes holding the electric lines. “Let’s make sure we have a blast.”

Roy smiled and took off his glasses, looking for fear. Anger was too dangerous, Flash could literally killed them in anger and it would be on Roy. The hero would be a scary bastard if he ever decided to go dark. A sudden gust of wind and the man was there, looking straight to his eyes, focused. He could feel his power building up, ready to go. Before he even knew it, Flash was standing behind him and going for Mark. Turning around, he pulled a gun from his coat, the speedster was fast but he was too focused on Mardon to pay attention to Roy, his mistake. And as long as the red-clasped figure didn’t die, everything was fair play. Another of Snart’s rules, added no that long ago.

At the same time, Mardon sent a gust of freezing wind in their direction. What they hadn’t took into account was the fact that Flash was getting more and more powerful, faster, and avoiding such an attack was as easy as breathing for him now. After all, the hero had to be training as well, not only criminals were upping their game in Central City. So, what happened was to be expected: the bullet hit Mardon, straight to his leg, wind sent Bivolo flying backwards and both fell. Except Roy fell down the building and only managed to hold onto the ledge by sheer luck. Fuck, he was fucked.

“Bivolo!” Mardon’s voice resonated through the night but the hand holding onto his jacket was covered by a red glove and the face looking down at him was younger, naïver and less heartless than Wizard’s.

“Hold on, Raider!” The Flash wasn’t really that strong, Roy understood, his body - not that he had been ogling! - was that of a runner, not a weightlifter, so even if there was strength there, there wasn’t enough to lift a grown-up man. “Come on!”

As previously stated, Roy knew emotions like the back of his hand. Looking up to the speedster, whose eyes were too sincere for his own good, who wore his heart on his sleeve, he knew, straight away, what the kid was feeling: he was terrified. Why? Because Bivolo, who had shot at him, was going to die? Stupid heroes, always wanting to save everyone.

“I’m letting go, Flash, otherwise, I’m dragging you with me.” Something in him told him that it was alright to let go, that he was more than ready to die. He hadn’t expected it, like he hadn’t expected the kid’s eyes to tear up or a teardrop to fall, warm and full of emotion, to his face.

“No, I’m saving you! You don’t have to die!” There was noise behind the Flash and a shadow towered over him, well, at least Mardon could finish their job. “Please, just hang on!”

He closed his eyes, truly smiling for the first time in ages. It was ok to die like this: fighting a hero so honest, so benevolent and so pure. Yet, he opened his eyes once again, looking up, when he felt another hand grabbing his forearm. Mardon was there, lying almost on top of the Flash, holding the hero’s waist and his partner’s wrist, frowning and sweating.

“He told you to hold on, fucker, and you hold on.” The weather man was pale, probably from the pain from his wound and the consequent bleeding. “On my count, Flash.”

The hero looked at the older man and nodded, getting himself ready to pull with all his strength. Mardon counted under his breath and both pulled. Their combined strength was enough to pull him up and Bivolo pushed himself up the rest of the way, over the ledge and into the rooftop, falling almost on top of his rescuers. The three of them stayed there, just lying on the floor, tangled, in silence. Flash hadn’t let go of his hand and Mardon’s, Mardon hadn’t let go of the hero at all, an arm around his waist, head hidden in the curve of his neck. Bivolo would later said that it wasn’t a conscious decision, this whole mess wasn’t anything but an unconscious decision, but in that moment, all he felt was something unnamed, warm that reminded him of his old life, of his parents, his ex-girlfriend and his art. Flash squeezed their hands, resting against Mardon, eyes closed and Bivolo just stared.

“Don’t you ever do that.” Despite the squeeze, despite the fact that he wasn’t still letting go of his hand, his words were harsh. “Don’t you ever dare to just let go of your life, Roy Bivolo.” Tears were still pricking his green eyes when he opened them to glare at him. “Your life is more important than anything you can ever steal, so, don’t be so willing to die.”

The Scarlet Speedster turned around, looking at Mardon and tore the man’s shirt apart, making makeshift bandages and tied it around the wound in his legs, Mark was looking at him, no scowl, no growls, no insults… he was looking at their enemy like someone who had just seen the Sun for the first time, in complete awe.

“Can you walk? I can take you to any of your warehouses.” And their eyes locked again, Mardon shook his head, they were really close and Mardon looked almost lost in those eyes, for a second Roy thought that the weatherman was going to go for it and just kiss the speedster senseless.

“I’m fine, Flash, I can walk just fine.” As to prove it, he stood and walked to the exit, or tried to, he was stumbling, favoring his uninjured leg. Bivolo went after him to help his friend and Flash didn’t make an attempt to apprehend them as they left.

As soon as they arrived the nearest safehouse, where Peek-a-Boo was already waiting for them, Bivolo looked at Mardon.

“You love him.” There wasn’t any other explanation. “Cold is going to kill you if you try anything.”

“I don’t know what are you talking about, Raider, and if you dare to say what happened tonight to anyone, well… I know how to make people disappear.” Just like that, Weather Wizard went to the infirmary, he needed stitches after all.

But Roy Bivolo was really good at reading people and their emotions, there was no denying it and he might not tell a soul about today’s events, he was a fearful man after all, but Mark Mardon, Weather Wizard, was in love with the Flash, their enemy, and that was a fact. And as of tonight, well, maybe Roy Bivolo had fallen a little bit in love with his savior too.


	5. Heatwave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mick needed to think, it didn't go well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Rogue that needs saving from the Flash. I truly love Mick Rory and I think he is underappreciated (sue me)

He had been drinking. He remembered that much about last night. He hadn’t been at Saints and Sinners though. He had needed some space, he hadn’t felt like listening to Lisa’s rant about Ramón, or Mardon and Bivolo laughing at the same jokes from Axel for the fifth time just that night. So, he had gotten up and walked to the closest bar in the neighborhood. He had sat down at the end of the bar and ordered beer. He had had some thinking to do, which would have been difficult around other Rogues if one took into account that they thought him to be a complete idiot, all brawls and no brains. Joke on them! He hadn’t gotten this far just having muscles on his side. After all, Len hadn’t been with him every step of the way. 

 

Thus, sitting there, ignoring the noise around him and the patrons that were looking at him, he thought of the Flash and the Rogues. Their relationship had been slowly changing, in some way or another, but it had definitely changed. For started, Bivolo and Mardon. He had heard them talking about the Flash, but there hadn’t been any heat left in their words, no ill-intention, they weren’t talking anymore about killing the Scarlet Speedster. Pulling heists and everything, but there hadn’t been any threats towards the hero of Central City. They weren’t the only ones though. Axel and Hartley - alright, they hadn’t been too serious about killing their number one enemy ever, but still… - they had moved forward with their relationship and the Flash? He had been thanked a lot of nights alongside a lot of different Gods. 

 

He had been ok with all that. But the last straw, the one that had him in a bar thinking what had happened and how to deal with it, were the Snarts. Both of them. Lisa had been bugging the cute engineer, Ramon. He understood the fling, he had felt the same when they had kidnapped him and his brother, the man was cute, nerdy and bright - intellectually and emotionally - but he looked like he rather swallow a bullet than spend more than five seconds in their presence. Still, Lisa was nothing if persistent. Len, on the other hand, had an obvious crush on the Flash. That, he couldn’t dare to understand. The man was obviously gorgeous, but also looked like he was jailbait. Stupid to feel even a little bit of desire towards him. He could get you thrown into Iron Heights just by looking in his general direction! And Len was so into him. 

 

The problem wasn’t even that! The problem was that, apparently, Bivolo and Mardon were also into that goddamn speedster. Who had called dibs first? Probably Len, guy was a control freak. And even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t let anyone get what he considered his. He had never been good at sharing. Ok, Len had called dibs - or not - so he was getting his speedster. Mick would have to… wait, something was off. The arsonist looked around as soon as he noticed that something wasn’t right. He had this fuzzy head that didn’t come with getting drunk, although if it did, Mick wasn’t even drunk, he had barely had one beer! Still, his sight was getting blurry, like the bar was just a mirage and it was disintegrating around him. He looked at his beer, then up and what he saw was one of the Santini’s henchmen looking at him across the bar, talking with the bartender in hushed voices.  Fuck!

 

Hell! Mick wasn’t going down easily. He picked up his stuff and left, regretting not having the Heat gun with him. He had left it behind because it would draw too much attention and he had needed to think. He stumbled into the back alley, ready to fight with everything he got, because drugged or not, he wasn’t prey. Regrettably, his first course of action should have been calling for backup. After a few steps into the night, he was greeted by other two henchmen. Mick throw a punch at one of them, missing miserably. Fuck, were there even two guys or was it just one? He couldn’t tell anymore as unconsciousness fell upon him. 

 

When he woke up - hours or days later, he couldn’t tell -, he found himself hanging from the ceiling, his shoulders hurt and he could barely touch the ground with his toes, which only aggravated the pain of his shoulders. Fuck, they had gotten rid of his shirt and shoes and he liked those boots! Looking around he saw a double trolley to his left, all kinds of tools there. So they were going to torture him. Mick almost laughed: were they really going to torture him? Good luck with that, he was a tough son of a bitch. He had tried almost every tool there on himself enough times so he couldn’t be tortured into giving his partners away - just in case, he liked to be prepared for anything - and this was no different. 

 

“Well, well, look who woke up.” The voice was inconfundible, had Frank decided to get ballsy? “How ya doin’, Mickey? I’m sorry you have to go through this, buddy.” He stared at the man as he got nearer and nearer. “You know, we wouldn’t have to be doing this if it weren’t for your friend Leonard, the son of a bitch is trying really hard to piss off every family in Central, isn’t he?” Seeing that Mick didn’t reply, he continued to talk. “Now he has to pay, you understand, don’t you?”

 

Mick didn’t dignify him with a reply. Len had been hitting criminal families as soon as he decided that he rather stay in Central City instead of wandering around and Mick had supported the idea, because he was also sick of moving around like stray dogs. Central was, after all, their home. Frank gave a signal to a man standing by who disappeared for a minute and came back with yet another double trolley. There were batteries on it, a bucket of water and a sponge. 

 

“I didn’t know you gave sponge baths now, Franky, you should at least treat me to dinner before, you know?” The man laughed, it wasn’t even funny, but he laughed as he soaked the sponge and wet the pyro’s abdomen. Mick didn’t like this at all. Electricity was something he had never wanted to try on himself, like fire, electricity could be unpredictable. 

 

“You know, I’m not doing this to get information. We already know everything about you and your ‘Rogues’. Nice name, by the way, cute.” The first shock wasn’t really painful, it was probably the lowest setting they had, still it drew a grunt from him and he jerked as electricity coursed through his body. “No, you are here to die, as a message for Leonard. But don’t be sad, buddy, you’re going out in the best way you can imagine: we’re going to let you burn alive in this place!”

 

Oh, at least they were considered. 

 

“Barry, we got a fire in the docks!” Barry was doing his nightly patrols when the alert came up, so he changed routes and went to the docks. Cisco was giving him more information. “Francisco Santos informed the fire department that his brother should still be inside the warehouse, he went to pick him up when he saw the fire! Be careful!”

 

The Flash didn’t hesitated when he arrived and rushed inside. If a man was still there, he needed to get him out as fast as possible. But the place was deserted, at least at first sight. Holding his breath, he ran around the warehouse to find a man lying, unconscious, on his side. 

 

“Found…” He turned the man to find it was Heatwave lying there. “Cisco, the man here is Heatwave! He looked like he has been tortured, he needs medical attention, I’m getting us there!” He grabbed the bigger, heavier man and flashed away. He hadn’t even checked for a pulse, but he needed to believe that the man was still alive. 

 

Surprisingly enough, Caitlin was already waiting for them when they arrived and Cisco helped him get Mick on the cot. As Cait started fussing over the criminal, Barry and Cisco went to the computer, they needed to find who did this. Even if it was just to give the man some sense of safety. Or as much safety as a man like Heatwave needed. 

 

“I found something. Despite the fact that the name rang a bell, I didn’t knew why, so I checked the database and couldn’t find any Francisco Santos, but I found a Frank Santini. Which is stupid, it’s basically the same, change the language and…” Barry was looking at the computer. What was going on between the Rogues and the mafia? “The thing is that I found out something interesting, because why would be the Italian family trying to kill Heatwave? Check this out.” He pulled a map of the city where there were a lot of colours. Pointing at the blue circle, he began explaining. “This is a map of the Santini’s territory, this is the Rogue’s self-claimed territory.” which was a smaller circle in purple. “It used to belong to the  Darbinyan , but when Nimbus killed them, it was no man’s land.” Cisco continued, pulling more information up. “Before the Rogues claimed it, crime rate went up in that area, like 200% higher, and that’s a lot. Now it’s safer. My bet, the Santini want that and the Rogues don’t want to give it up.” 

 

It made sense, definitely. Yet, it didn’t. The Rogues weren’t a crime family, there were a group of criminals that Snart kept calm and out of problems considering that they were… well, crooks. There was so much that Barry needed to now. Looking back at the infirmary, he sighed. 

 

“Can you call Lisa and let her know that Rory is here? Don’t tell her who did this, Snart gets murdery when protecting his own.” Although Rory would probably tell him straight away or go after the Italians himself. That was a problem for tomorrow, though. “Cait, how is he?”

  
  


When Mick finally woke up, to a massive headache, he found himself in a hospital cot, machines beeping quietly. He looked around, it wasn’t a hospital, but a lab. Where had he landed himself? 

 

“Mr. Rory, how are you feeling?” It took him a second to find the source of the voice. The woman was sitting at the desk to his right, back to him, though he could place it anywhere. It was the Flash’s friend. She turned around, she still wasn’t afraid of him. “Are you in pain? Your injuries suggested that you had been roughed up, tortured perhaps?”

 

“Doc.” No, he wasn’t in pain, but he wasn’t drugged either. He appreciated it. “Flash saved me?” At her nod, he tried to sit up, just to be pushed back down by a gentle hand. “I need to leave, don’t wanna get thrown in jail.”

 

“Nobody here is going to hurt you or incarcerate you, rest assured. Your friends are coming to pick you up, I especifically told them to wait a few hours.” She wasn’t lying, he could tell. “So, why don’t you rest until then?” 

 

They weren’t alone, probably. There was no way that the hero would let one of his friends by herself with the criminal that had strapped her to a bomb. Speaking of which…

 

“I’m sorry for the whole bomb and kidnapping business, Doc, and thank you. Both of you.” After that, they remained in silence. Everything had been said already, and the nice lady doctor didn’t look like someone who could hold a grudge forever. He found himself dozing off after a few minutes, thinking that maybe, just maybe, now he understood the Rogues’ relationship with the Flash a little better.


	6. The Flash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One time the Rogues saved the Flash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to apologize to everyone who reads this. And I want to thank anyone who took time to read it, review, bookmark or leave kudos. Thank you!

The News had been on. The Rogues had been playing cards, waiting for dinner, while planning a new heist where all of them were going to be involved - except Peek-a-Boo, though she was going to be waiting in the safe house to patch them up just in case. There was a lot of noise, laughs and jokes going around. After all, the crooks were excited about their new heist. However, everything had stilled when the news started to inform about a new metahuman was creating havoc in Central City Park and giving the Flash a very hard time. Up until then, no one was actually listening to the newsfeed, but as soon as the hero of Central City was mentioned, all eyes turned to the television. The feed was… brutal to say the least. As they sat there, watching it, Len’s gut clenched, heart stopped for a second, and he almost fell from the armchair, sitting so close to the edge as he was, a hand was on his Cold gun. He wasn’t the only one who tensed at the feed.

 

“The new meta appears to have super strength and some kind of metal-related power, though we cannot get closer to uncover more information about this man that had been identified by the CCPD as Trevor Hawkins, who was reported missing almost a year ago by his friends!” There were screamings and cryings around the reporter who had to yell to be heard, though she was looking once and again over her shoulder, obviously terrified to be there, endangered by the fight and destruction going on. 

 

Suddenly, the feed cut to go back again, this time  from a helicopter who dared to fly above the fight, using zoom to get better view of the encounter between the new meta and Central’s hero. Lisa gasped, shocked by what they were seeing, Hartley looked away, pale. Len was about to scream at the TV like that would do something, like the Flash could hear him and fight back as Len wanted him to or to give up and live to fight another day. But Barry was being pressed against a building, blood staining his suit, one of his arms was bent in an impossible angle, and yet, the Flash was struggling to get free, he was trying to fight back, useless as it was. Stupid hero… did he want to die? Did he want to leave Len behind so badly?

 

“Gear up, we are going out.” No one protested. No one asked where they  were going or what they were going to be doing. Everyone knew. “Shawna, get everything you need to patch people up.” Just in case someone got hurt during the fight. If this meta-douche was giving the Flash a hard time, he could tear the Rogues apart. 

  
  


On Barry’s end though, he certainly wasn’t planning to die. He wanted to save everyone were still standing around them. Civilians and police officers too close for his comfort. They were in danger and even then, they wouldn’t leave the premises. The meta was pressing him against a building, hand around his neck, choking him. 

 

“Is this all the Flash got?” Barry tried to get away, try to punch the guy straight to the nose.  He wasn’t surprised that it did nothing to the idiot. Just like no previous blow had done any damage. The meta’s skin didn’t show anything peculiarity, but it was harder than anything he had ever hit. Furthermore, he was an arm down, it hurt to breathe, a wheezing noise could be heard every time he draw a breath in! Everything was  _ peachy _ . “I’m going to kill you and rip you apart for everyone to see, Flash!”

 

As the man prepared himself to punch the hero again, he loosened the grip around Barry’s throat and the hero found his chance to escape and ran away, a few meters at least. Cisco was yelling at him but he couldn’t understand a word. The man he was fighting looked at him and grinned sadistically. Grabbing his own arm, he tried setting it better than at that strange angle, if he was healing - and he could feel how he was healing. He didn’t need to have a bone reset wrongly, Caitlin would kill him if he let it heal that badly. He knew, though, that it was a temporary fix, something so he could use both arms to some capacity. He grunted, holding back a scream. Hell would freeze before the speedster acknowledged pain in front of that idiot. 

 

“I’m so glad you still have some fight in you, kid! This is going to be so much funnier!” He claimed before launching himself towards the Flash, who avoided him… just to receive a bullet to the leg once he stilled. The sniper had taken advantage of Barry obvious distraction. 

 

Barry yelled, shocked, and fell on his knee. The wounded leg not supporting his weight. Checking the wound, he saw that the bullet hadn’t exited, so it was probably stuck inside. Shit. This whole business was going south way faster that he had expected and more players were involved, not just a douchebag metahuman. Who was it? Who was aiding this man? 

 

“Did you think I was alone in this, Flash? No. I got some friends, maybe their names ring a bell to you. Eiling to begin with.” Barry looked around, looking for the military, gut clenching with pure terror. The buildings around the park weren’t that high but they were high enough as to not be seen from ground level. “He got me trained, powered me up a bit more once I let them do some testing, at least enough to kill the Flash and get him new metas. They have a few targets already, like Weather Wizard.” 

 

No, this couldn’t be happening. There was no way this was happening, damn it! The meta was towering over him, smiling again, eyes fixed on the red-clasp man in front of him. As he ripped a streetlight as one would do with a stick, he moved his other hand in a strange gesture. He used the streetlight to hit the speedster straight to the chest. The crack of his ribs sounded loud and clear and, despite the fact that he should have gone flying back, something kept him in place, kneeling while his leg was still trying to patch itself back. Looking down, Barry saw that his feet had been encased in iron. His eyes went back to the man, vibrating as fast as he could to get rid of the improvised cuffs before the next hit. As soon as he was out of those, he fell backwards, avoiding the next hit just barely. Shit, shit, shit! If he only had his friends with him, this was a job for a team!

 

“You know, what? I was told not to kill you. They want to cuff you to a hospital cot and cut you open. But that wouldn’t be as fun, would it? There is no suffering, and I want to see you scream for me.” With a jerk of a hand, a bench moved to their left, separating in different parts and falling upon the Flash, keeping him down. Trapped once again, he laid on his back like a sacrifice waiting for its death. He wasn’t sure if he was being fast enough to get out, he tried though. “So, scream for me, pretty boy!” The sharp part of the streetlight came down but before it could hit its target - And God, it was going to hurt like a bitch! -, a bomb exploded a few meters away from them, drawing their attention to the bystanders. 

 

“Hey, asshole! Hands off of my friend!” Both metas looked at the parting crowd to see the Trickster Jr., bomb in his hand, ready to fight alongside the Flash against the mean meta. “Or I will fucking bomb you, bitch!” 

 

Dread fell upon Barry, who has finally phased out of this cuffs, and, before the man could even take a step in the general direction of the people and Axel, went for a punch to the whatever-his-name-was’ ribs - which he should stop doing because it did nothing on his opponent and was worsening his injured hands. However, he needed to distract the man, because, come on, he could take the beating, but those people standing around? They wouldn’t heal if they got caught in the crossfire. And though he was still hurt: his leg was semi-healed, enough for him to stand on it, his ribs were almost there too, though he wasn’t getting enough oxygen; he needed to believe  everything was going to be ok. If only he could come up with a solid plan... If only he had his team to help him come up with a plan.

 

“You know him, Flash?” The man didn’t even move, ignoring Barry for a second - even after being punched by him! Talking about rude! - but the Trickster was already gone. The man - seriously, what was his fucking name? - went back to Barry. The dude had that creepy smile, grabbed the Scarlet hero by the neck and lift him like he weighed nothing. He wasn’t being choked, but the blow he received to the solar plexus left him gasping and then he was sent flying against a tree. Fuck! He grunted, tried to get himself together while he almost heaving for air. If his ribs had been healing, they were shattered again. Cait wasn’t going to be happy! “It doesn’t matter. No one can stop me now, Flash! And you are going to die today at the hands of Iron Patriot!” Cisco would feel terribly offended by that code name. 

 

Barry had difficulties getting up again after that blow. Still, he was ready to keep on fighting, and he promised himself that as soon as everyone was safe, he was going to run away because he was too injured to even think of a plan. But if there was a single person still around that could get injured - or worse, killed-, he needed to keep on fighting, drawing Iron Patriot’s attention to himself, the snipers’ attention! Talking about snipers… 

 

He was ready to run once again when shots were heard, coming from the buildings around them. This time it wasn’t just one shot though, and people started to run away - finally! - as Barry dodged bullet after bullet. The CSI in him was telling him to try and figure out where the snipers were located, trace the bullets’ trajectory. The hero on the other hand was telling him that people’s safety was more important than his own. He chose to  look around, looking for Axel, but the young man was nowhere to be found and the speedster sighed in relief. However, his preoccupation for Trickster Jr. meant that he wasn’t paying attention at the fight, that was a mistake. And at the end, being as fast as he was, he couldn’t avoid every single bullet and a lucky shot found itself landing between his shoulder blades, avoiding all critical points by sheer luck! 

 

Again, he found himself landing on the floor, face first, grunting in pain. He so needed a plan or back up. He got up just in time to see the man towering over him with a new pole - where did those keep coming from!? There weren’t that many streetlights! - that was way too sharp for Barry’s liking. Where was this going to end? Barry closed his eyes, ready to give up and just die, it would had been easier. However, thunder cracked, and the man was sent to the ground as lightning fell upon him… on a sunny day. 

 

“Didn't you say that one’s life was the most valuable thing one had, Flash?” Mardon! Barry used whatever strength he could muster to flash them both away. More gunshots could be heard. He was starting to see a pattern there. 

 

“What are you doing? Leave now! Both of you!!” He pushed Weather Wizard away, looking over his shoulder to the man, who was growling and getting up with difficulties. “Run!!”

 

“We are not leaving you here, Scarlet.” He looked to the voice’s source, dread coming over, blood disappearing from his face, the Rogues were there. All of them. “You look roughed up, Flash.” 

 

“Len, you shouldn't be here, this is dangerous. Get as far as possible. Now.” Without looking back, and ignoring the pain, Barry ran over to the man, he grabbed on his way a fallen piece of wood as a makeshift weapon. He needed to deal with this soon, but it was hard to do so with bullets raining around him, being injured and more concerned about his villains being around than about the actual fight! He couldn’t help but think that Oliver would have a field day with him if he ever learnt about this. “Hey, over here, sucker!” 

 

He hit the man and finally draw some blood, maybe Mardon’s lightning had weakened him. Maybe he finally stood a chance against the Patriot - really bad name - and his military friends. If only Fate didn’t hate him as much as it did...

 

“You little bitch!” Barry ran away as soon as the man was up and trying to encase him with iron. He felt better now that he had injured the metal man, now that he had started to be able to read his attacks, but he was still in a pretty tight spot. “I’m going to fucking kill you!!” 

 

Earth shook under his feet and he was sent flying. He saw pipes and other metal objects coming from the ground. He had lost his footing and was going directly towards a bunch of pointy objects. He tried to change his posture, just to see how a different thing flew towards him, shapeshifting to be mortal. The hero saw the wound before his brain even registered the pain and he screamed, a blood-curling scream as bone broke through muscles and skin. It was all Barry could see: the bloodied bone sticking out of his leg and blood staining his already stained suit. He almost hurled right there and then if it hadn’t been because he was in shock. 

 

“Shit!” He heard the voice coming from his left and a beam of flame went over his head. Mick Rory coming out of nowhere. Len had probably sent him. Goggles were covering his eyes but he could see the frowning. “Get the kid outta here, now!!” 

 

If only someone could take out those snipers for him, if only the speedster weren’t so injured… his healing factor had completely shut down, it had tried to cover his more urgent injuries but it wasn’t fast enough, he himself wasn’t fast enough or strong enough and the hero was so goddamn tired already. His eyes teared up, he was feeling useless, weak and he wanted to keep fighting, he wanted to take this meta down so the sick bastard - and his military buddies - couldn’t go after other metas. If only Barry were a better hero, a hero people could actually trust…

 

Suddenly, both the hero and the Rogue were surrounded by the thickest fog he had ever seen, probably thanks to Mardon. Barry even stopped seeing Mick’s flames, but they could still heard the occasional gunshots - though they were slowing down now - and the man enraged screaming as he lost sight of his prey. He felt someone tugging him and looking up, Barry saw Hartley and Lisa’s faces, they were blurry around the edges and were trying to get the Flash up without doing further damage to the hero. Bivolo was also there, looking around, glasses in hand, they were grasped so tightly in his right hand that they might had been broken, his eyes were an unnatural grey, Barry wondered what emotion he was trying to convey with that color. 

 

“Come on, Flash, we gotta get you to STAR Labs.” Piper said, Barry tried to support all his weight on his good leg once he was standing between the Rogues, but everything was hurting more now that his body had given up on healing itself and he was stuck with pain “Snart is waiting for us at the getaway car.”

 

“I can’t leave, not yet…” He tried to protest, still high on adrenaline - though a part of him was glad he could leave. As soon as he was forced to walk, the pain got ten times worse and he bit his lip until it bleed to avoid a scream from escaping his lips, it would just draw attention to themselves and, really, these people would be killed if Patriot caught them. His sight was getting blurrier by the second, and all he wanted to do was to yank the suit out and let Cait patch him up. “Wait, Mardon and Rory are-”

 

“Mick and Mark will be alright, they will get out as soon as Lenny gives them the signal. I’m calling Cisco right now.” Lisa cut him as soon as he started talking again. Lisa, who had her phone against her ear waiting for his friend to answer. “Pick up, Cisco, come on, baby, pick up….” 

 

He stumbled and almost fell down, just to set straight again by his two supports. True to their word, there was a van a few meters away, out of sight. Barry was relieved that at least they were safe and almost cried when Len opened the back of the van and helped him get inside. His head was pushed onto Len’s lap. At the wheel was Axel, Piper sat by his side and Bivolo took the last front seat. Lisa got inside, pale and looking at her brother, silent conversation going on. Soon enough, Mick and Mardon were there too and it was a little too crowded but it was ok, because they were unscathed. 

 

“Cisco said we cannot get to STAR Labs, apparently they are sieged by the military, Lenny.” Len looked down to him, worry written all over his face, these injuries couldn’t be heal by Shawna, no matter how good she was getting at patching them up. “We cannot go the hospital, he is the freaking Flash...”

 

“Shawna will have to do.” Barry’s breaths were shallow, like he had trouble breathing, like he couldn’t get enough air into himself. “Flash, you ok with that?” 

 

“C-caitlin... she needs Cait…” If only they had been there sooner, pushed themselves onto the battle, this wouldn’t be happening now. They had an injured hero and their medical expertise was a nurse student! “C-call...” 

 

Axel was driving like a madman, this time it wasn’t an issue seeing that everyone was running or driving as far as they could, so they got away unnoticed and found themselves parking in the safehouse garage less than two minutes after the fight. This time Mardon and Mick helped him get the speedster out, there were so many cuts, bullet holes, and that bone sticking out of his legs, all covered in blood, dried and new. Was he even going to survive? Piper went to get Shawna, Axel just behind him, to help her get everything ready, Lisa on the phone by their side, talking to Cisco and Bivolo closing the line, making sure nobody had even dared to follow them. As soon as they got to the main area, Lisa pulled a laptop and turned it on by Shawna side. 

 

“Cisco, Dr. Snow, you on.” Barry turned his head to the side to see both his friends pale and scared, if only he could be there to help them. Caitlin and Cisco weren’t fighters, they were scientists and had declared that they rather be the support team instead of being the guys who constantly needed patching, though they were both powerful enough now. He sent them the smallest smile he could mutter. His face hurt, sue him. “Bring the goddamn vodka!”

 

“Wait… Vodka? What for!? Shawna, don’t dare to...” Caitlin looked horrified when she heard about vodka. Obviously, she knew Barry’s metabolism and she had jumped to the conclusion that it was to clean Barry’s wounds or for the Rogues to drink. 

 

“Doc, we need to get him at least a bit drunk. And let me tell you: kid looks like a light-weight.” Rory came with two bottles of vodka. Barry almost laughed and Caitlin facepalm, realising that these people weren’t aware of the hypermetabolism - and the horrors that came with it - that they were going to face. “Open up, kid, it will burn but you won’t feel a thing afterwards.”

 

“Mr. Rory, Flash can’t get drunk. So, please, put down the vodka and let’s get started. ” That got all Rogues looking at the laptop and then to the speedster who was very much conscious and in obvious pain. “He is still probably high on adrenaline, so he won’t lose consciousness anytime soon, you need to be prepared.”

 

“Flash isn’t commando so you need to get the suit out of him, before destroying it further, I love that suit!” Cisco interrupted and they were still too shocked. All of them. 

 

“His cowl is attached to the suit, Ramon.” They looked down to the Flash, realisation falling upon them again once that Snart spoke. They had so not thought this through...

 

“It doesn’t matter, we are in a life or death situation here! His injuries are going to start healing wrongly and it will be a pain to hurt him just for those same injuries to heal back later on! Just get them to swear never speaking about his identity, Cold!” Ramon was right, Len looked around the room, he could trust his Rogues.

 

“Those who won’t be able to keep Flash’s identity to themselves, please, leave the room now.” Unsurprising enough, no one moved. If all, they looked offended by the insinuation that they would use Flash’s identity against him. What fun was in that? “Alright.”

 

Following Cisco instructions - A ‘Really? You need instructions to peel the leather suit?’ and ‘It’s not leather!’ later - they had finally peeled the suit off and Mick laughed. 

 

“Knew he would look like jailbait!” Len just groaned and turned to the laptop, it was easier than seeing Barry - almost naked Barry, except for the navy blue brief - so injured. “Doc?”

 

“Ok, this is going to hurt, Barry, but you need to be strong and relax, don’t tense up, ok?” Her smile was faltering, like she had to be reassured as much as she was trying to reassure her friend who nodded. “Let’s clean up the blood, then look for the most severe injuries. By the way he is breathing, I’m guessing he has broken ribs and/or a punctured lung. I would need to be there to know if there is internal bleeding, my guessing is there is… once he has rested, his body should be able to fix that by itself, so, let’s focus on the ribs for now.”

 

“It looks like the bone sticking out of his leg didn’t touch any major artery or vein, I’m going to bandage it so he doesn’t bleed out while we treat the other injuries.” Shawna turned around and gave Lisa and Piper water to clean off the rest of the blood while she dressed the leg, being as careful as possible. Still the man jerked up, grunting his teeth to stop the scream. “Hold him down!” Mardon and Bivolo got his legs while Leonard and Mick got this shoulders, keeping the hero down. 

 

“Great, you have to watch out for vibrations and phasing, sometimes he does that when it hurts too much, Shawna.” Nothing made sense to them but Shawna nodded all the same. Axel was holding the laptop up so the actual doctor could see what was going on. “Good dressing, let’s move to his torax. You need to cut between two ribs.” 

 

Shawna was looking at the skin covering the ribs and she suddenly found herself unable to do this. This was wrong on so many levels. She looked at Barry, they had said his name was Barry, then she looked at Len. She opened her mouth to say something, to say that she couldn’t do it. 

 

“Do it, I’ll be fine.” Barry closed his eyes and tried to breathe as deeply as possible, tried to relax. It was so difficult to breathe and everything hurt. “Listen to Cait, she… she knows.” 

 

“Shawna, do it or he dies right there and we still have a metahuman to fight.” Cisco was behind her, looking pale but focused on everything. “If we wait more you might have to break his ribs again.”

 

She steeled herself after that, reminded herself that this was a life or death kind of situation, and cut the man open, like she had done while practising on dead pigs. The kid, because he was a goddamn kid!, hissed and tensed, not moving though his frame seemed to blur for a second and there was so much blood... Dead pigs didn’t bleed this much. Lisa pressed some gauze around the injury and Rathaway was left cleaning cuts that were already closed, healed. Shawna worked fast to ensure that the lung would be fine. And dressed his chest completely, the doctor had been right, his ribs were healing already but they didn’t need rebreaking. Shawna moved to the leg, checked on the bullet hole there and knew what she had to do without Caitlin telling her, this was an usual Rogue’s injury. 

 

“Is the bullet still inside?” The Flash nodded, so tense, so pale, sweating but still looking very much awake, he looked like a doe in front of headlights. Why couldn’t he just welcome unconsciousness? She wanted to ask so badly but she rather work on healing him, her enemy, the man that had kept her and her fellow Rogues in an illegal jail for months. Life certainly was messed up. Looking up at Len and the others though, she saw that it was the right call, helping this man. “I need to get it out. Tweezers.” Lisa handed those to her and she cut the skin open, kept it open using a finger and it was marvelous to see how the skin tried to knit itself back as she prodded inside with the tweezer. The speedster screamed and this time the blur she had thought she had imagined before, it was full on as he vibrated all over. “Keep him still, goddamit!!”

 

After getting the bullet out and stitching the wound, she was ready to start with diverse gashes in his arms and legs . But he stopped her with a whisper. She got closer to hear just a word: “leg”. God, she had tried to leave that one for later on. She was nauseous, she had just treated two of his many injuries and she was ready to throw up in the closest corner and cry a river. Looking at the laptop, she felt pity. The woman there looked as sick as her and the poor doctor had to deal with this more times that Shawna dared to think. How did she manage?

 

“Move to his leg, we will leave the shot at his back  for after. The rest of the injuries will heal on their own with some rest.” Caitlin said, biting her nail and looking to Cisco from time to time. The engineer was by her side, the two of them following the procedure closely. “Cisco, have you got any answer from the rest?”

 

“No, they are probably are sieged as well and it will take Team Arrow a few hours to arrive to Central.” Cisco explained looking at his phone. “We need the Flash for this and they are still out there.”

 

Shawna took the bloodied bandage away and took a deep breath. Lisa held her hand, reassuring their beloved nurse. 

 

“Hey, you can do this, Shawna, you’re doing great.” She whispered and looked at Barry’s face. “He owes us a big one now.” 

 

It didn’t help. At all. He didn’t owe them shit, they owe him a lot, and they were messy and so not prepared to deal with his abilities and injuries and Shawna was about to start crying, apologizing and getting as far from the kid as possible... She started working on the leg, focused. Though her mind wandered to the huge man that had done this amount of damage without remorse. He had done it for the sake of hurting the hero. And he looked so young and in so much pain. The screaming, blurring and jerking were awful and it would hunt Shawna forever, but this kid had to go through this without anything to help him forget it ever happened. Shawna found herself being furious when the leg was done, following Caitlin’s instructions, stitching and dressing. 

 

“Turn him around, you need to work on the bullet in his back, be careful, we don’t know if the running around made it move.” The men worked on helping the Flash turn around and God, he was just black and blue all over, the bruising being more prominent as time went by. “Barr, how are you holding?” 

 

“F-fine. Just get it done, p-please.” He sounded like a lost kid asking for his mom. Len had a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place, the other was tangled in his hair, petting him. “Please…” 

 

Tweezer in hands, she prodded around once more, this time, the Flash didn’t jerk, he didn’t moved, he didn’t even yelped. For a second Shawna wondered if he had finally let go. 

 

“You’re doing great, Scarlet. Why don’t you tell me what are you going to have for dinner?” Len on the other hand knew that Barry wasn’t going to go under while being treated. “Chinese? Maybe some Mexican?”

 

“Nah, some pizzas, right, Barry?” Cisco talked up and it was so random… it was almost hilarious. Flash didn’t reply. “Or I can try and send you some of our calorie bars you love so much.”

 

“Cisco…” Barry looked to the side, eyes filled of unshed tears. “I hate those bars, they taste like cardboard. I want Mexican, pizzas and Chinese and if you get all of that for me, God, I’d love you forever.”

 

“You love me already, Scarlet.” Len smiled sadly, cleaning up the treacherous tears that dared to spill from those beautiful eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll send Axel to get whatever you want. As much as you want.” 

 

“Take note then: five pizzas with pepperoni, olives and jalapeños, twenty five tacos with cheese and guacamole, eight Spring rolls, three Gong Bao chicken and twenty meat dumplings…” Barry closed his eyes, so pale, he was frowning and sweat was a thin sheet all over his body. Shawna stitched the wound and he lied there, unmoving, barely breathing. 

 

“He’s out. Mardon take the laptop, Axel go with Bivolo and get everything he asked for, you can take my wallet. Mick, help me turn him around. Lisa, help Hart to clean everything, Shawna, you ok to finish?” While talking with Barry, Len had been Len, now he was all Cold, leader of the Rogues. “Doc, Ramón, you need help over there?”   
  


“We will be fine, we shut down STAR Labs, they can’t get in here but we can’t get out, there is too much research here for us to leave unprotected. Hopefully they will retreat soon.” Cisco muttered something behind Caitlin who shushed him with a frown. “Barry will be up in a few hours, we will try to be there as soon as possible, you ok with that?”

 

“Yes, we got him.” Shawna finished stitching the last injuries, minor cuts and grazes. Now that Flash was out, she could see that some of the lesser injuries were healing already, it was like watching a video fast-forward. Once Lisa and Hart were done cleaning up the drying blood, they covered the man with a sheet and left to washed themselves, taking the shaken nurse with them. Mardon finished the call, once Mick promised to get in touch with them if something came up, and after the Weather man left too, Len dropped the persona and caressed Barry’s arm. “I got you, Scarlet. No harm will come to you here. I promise.”

 

“So, since when have you been fucking jailbait here, boss?” Len sighed, taking a seat by Barry’s side. “And don’t try to lie. Not to me.”

 

“After he saved Lisa. I went to him and asked him out, tried to pass it like a ‘thank you’, afterwards we just…” Len scratched his neck, without taking his eyes from Barry’s face. 

 

“That was like months ago, Snart. Does anyone else know?” Len shook his head. Well, they were enemies out there, it was understandable that no one dared to think of those two hooking up. “It’s ok. Kid’s gonna be fine.” Mick left after that and Len was alone with his thought, and those weren’t pretty.

 

“This doesn’t pay back for what you have done to us, Scarlet. Just so you know.” He kissed the younger man’s forehead and then his lips, just a chaste kiss. “So wake up soon.”

  
  


Hours later, when Barry woke up, he was sore but the pain was almost gone. He looked to the side to find Len there, watching over him and he smiled. Groaning, he sat up. God, he was hungry.

 

“Took you a while, Scarlet.” Len put a hand against his back, helping him remain sitting. “You had me worried, you know?”

 

“I’ll make it up to you.” He smiled as Len kissed him, slowly, carefully, so different to their normal kisses, like he thought he could break his boyfriend just by kissing. “Thank you for saving me, stupid as it was going out there.” 

 

“I hate seeing you hurt, Barry. How do you think I felt when I saw you getting beat up?” They had had this discussion before, plenty of times, and it didn’t mattered because Len would always hate seeing Barry hurt and Barry wouldn’t give up on being the Flash. “And that bastard was just doing it for fun. I couldn’t stay here and just let you die.”

 

“It’s alright, next time I’ll get him far away from the people and kick his ass into next week.” That worried Len even more because his partner was going to go up against that monster again and again until the Flash defeated him, he didn’t even care about getting injured again. Sensing the mood, Barry chose to change topics. “So, the Rogues know about me now.”

 

“Yes, but they won’t say a thing, I promise.” Len caressed his cheek, still bruised but already fading into a greenish-yellowish colour. Barry’s stomach decided it was a good time as any other to protest for the lack of food. “Also, food is waiting for you. If I didn’t know how much you can actually eat, I’d have been concerned about your diet habits.”

 

“Great, I’m really hungry and I need to eat to heal completely.” But he didn’t know if he could actually walk, the lingering pain in his leg was a reminder that he had actually broke it. “Also, can you lend me some clothes? Kind of embarrassing going around in my underwear.”

 

“I’ll bring you some sweatpants and a t-shirt, though you look so much better naked.” Barry blushed and Len had to refrain from kissing him senseless. “I’ll also send food this way, I’m sure Shawna wants to check you up again before you even dare to move.” 

 

Len left and Barry looked around. It hadn’t been the first time he was at a Rogues’ safehouse, but this one was new or not new but unknown to him. The door opened and Shawna came in, frowning like only Caitlin would. 

 

“You know you should be resting. Your doctor told me you were reckless but I didn’t want to believe her.” She pushed him down so he was lying on his back once again. “How are you feeling? Any pain?”

 

“No, I’m fine, Shawna. Thank you for patching me up.” Shawna snorted and looked away, but Barry saw the tears forming in the corner her eyes. He took her hand between his and smile sadly. “And I’m sorry you had to.”

 

“Normally, people can be… normally people don’t have to stay awake, Flash, and you… you do this every day: you get hurt and you keep going out there; I wonder if you are even sane! You put your friends and family through this every single time you wear that stupid suit and go out there to deal with crazy people who just want to kill you!” Ok, he hadn’t been expecting that. “How… how are you so selfish?” 

 

“Shawna…” The door opened again, this time it was Axel and Bivolo, bringing so much food that they looked confused. “Sorry, can we have this conversation later? I need to eat before I pass out again.”

 

“Are you sure this isn’t just to mess with Snart?” Bivolo asked offering the boxes of pizza to the injured. “There is a lot of food here” 

 

Barry grabbed and speed ate the pizzas and only slowed down - still eating really fast but not so fast - when he started with the tacos, swallowing one and another until the twenty five tacos were just gone. The Rogues had gathered there, all of them, they were staring at the slim, gangly kid swallow all the food that he had asked. It was disgustingly entertaining, like looking at a gruesome accident. When the last empty box of Chinese food was left with the others, the kid looked healthier. 

 

“God, I was hungry.” He said as Len put some clothes by his side. “Thanks.” 

 

Barry pulled the sweatpants and shirt on, feeling a little bit self-conscious as nobody had stopped staring at him. No one said a word until Axel decided he had a question that was really important to ask, life or death important.

 

“So... how fast do you need to go to the toilet?” Jr. asked and finally everyone looked away from the hero, changing targets to stare at the Trickster. “What!? No one else was wondering!?” 


	7. Bonus - Injured while Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry trains and Len worries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a post-battle bonus chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

As soon as he was discharge from Shawna’s care - just a few hours after the whole Iron Patriot Incident, and boy weren’t the Rogues freaking out about his healing factor -, the Flash suit up and after smiling at his saviours, he ran away to save his friends. Len sighed and went to the TV, just in case something happened. But there wasn’t any news about the douchebag who had hurt his better half. However, he got a call half an hour later. 

 

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I made it back safely. The military were still around and I took care of them.” It was nice to hear good news coming from Barry. “Thank you for saving me, Caitlin says that Shawna did a very good job.”

 

“You’re welcome, Red. What are you going to do now?” Len could almost heart the smirk coming from the other side. 

 

“Like I told you, I’m going to kick that idiot’s ass.” And it was a promise. Len couldn’t help it but frown in worry.

 

Barry waited a week to start working on a strategy  to kick Iron Patriot’s ass next time they faced each other. Len thought that it was in his behalf and not because the speedster wasn’t eager to start. Because, Barry was certain that they would have to deal with the man again and he wanted to be prepared when time came. Despite his boyfriend being pissy about it, because Len was giving him hell for wanting to do his job. But, he needed to train and do a lot of equations, figure out how to break the unbreakable skin of the meta and he had no time to think of his boyfriend getting angry at him for it. 

 

Fighting Iron Patriot felt a lot like going against Tony all over again. Except this man was meaner and had the military to back him up. But just like Tony, Iron Patriot was going  to get beaten by the hero of Central City, one way or another. So, training was long due by the end of the week. He could have waited longer but a week was all it took Cisco to get everything ready. Cisco had perfected some dummies that would move around and resist his hits more than the previous ones. And the Scarlet Speedster was more than ready to take them on. If it weren’t for the fact that Len was in STAR Labs, perched against the wall, looking at him with… well, disappointment. 

 

“You know, you can ask for help. We can help you fight the idiot with the silly name.” He and the Rogues wanted the Flash to be safe. Since the whole ‘Let’s save the Flash’ business, the Rogues had taken the role of Barry’s protectors and get him to go out with them: they made sure he ate plenty, rested plenty and Shawna had even gotten to the point of checking even the slightest injury he might get. Hell, Len was starting to feel jealous! And not only because of that, but because the Rogues acted like well-behaved people instead of the assholes they truly were when Barry was around! 

 

“Like I have said a thousand times: it’s too dangerous, Len. I don’t want you or your Rogues running straight into danger.” Len stared at him with a eyebrow arched and Barry rolled his eyes. “I have super-healing factor, you don’t. Also, I can get away real fast. You can’t. So, no, Len, I don’t want you to fight this meta.”

 

“We could deal with the military, it’s not like they know all of us!” Except the military did know about all of them. Barry didn’t have proof of it, but he was so sure of it as he was that the military had a way to stop every meta working with the Rogues. Barry hadn’t told him about the special bomb Eiling had made to stop him and he was the Flash, fastest man alive and hero of Central City. “At least let’s us stay close by, make sure that we can pull you out before you get yourself killed, Barry!”

 

“We will talk about this later, I promise. But right now I need to go and train.” The speedster  walked up to his boyfriend and put his hands on Len’s chest, trying to calm down the older man. And in that moment, Cisco decided to walk in and Barry was glad that the engineer was so cool about them being more than enemies. “What have you brought, buddy?”

 

“At first I thought that if you could have managed to throw a super sonic punch at him, we could have gotten him, but then I realised that he wasn’t covered in metal like Girder, so…” So that changed the maths behind the super sonic punch and their winning strategy. Len was thinking what the hell was a super sonic punch and what it implied. “Maybe it will work with more distance, more speed…”

 

“There will be more backlash as well.” His hand still hurt thinking of how he had punched Tony back in the day, taking him down. Oh, he was so slow back in the day. “Can we think of another way of doing this? Mardon’s lightning worked, after he was struck by it I draw some blood.”

 

“We can also try the lightning punch. I have the dummies in the van, so… shall we?” Cisco was looking at him but waiting for Cold to say something. 

 

“I think I will leave you go be nerds.” Adorable nerds, but nerds nonetheless. “I need to run a few errands.” He squeezed Barry’s hand on his way out, that was the most he could manage regarding PDA. “Catch you later, Scarlet.”

 

“I can’t still believe that you two are dating.” Neither could Barry, some days it was like a dream. Other it was like a nightmare to be honest. 

 

“And I can’t believe you aren’t dating Heatwave, I’ve seen you look at Rory when he is around.” The speedster laughed at his friend’s flushed face. “Let’s go, those dummies won’t destroy themselves. Drones are ready too?”

 

“Lasers and everything. Lucky us, Cait won’t be around!” 

  
  


Len looked at his phone one more time, it was almost midnight and there wasn’t news on Barry. He had promised to spend the night with him, and yes, he was normally late but not this late. Len had even canceled poker night with the Rogues just to be with his Scarlet! He had a well laid plan to convince the kid that he needed their help: sex and cuddles and trick him into accepting help. It worked like a charm every single time. 

 

But knowing Barry and Ramon, it was normal to get worried that the kid was running so late to their date. He got up from the couch to make himself some coffee. He was going to be wide awake when the kid arrived. Even if it killed him. Yet, as soon as he reached the kitchen, his phone went off. The ID flashing in his screen surprised him. Why would Snow be calling him? She was supposed to be on a date with his sister… His worry was getting worse by the second.

 

“Doc, what’s up?” He heard a sigh, tired and resigned. “Doc?”

 

“Barry got injured during training, he needs to be monitored for the night but he insisted that I called you to let you know. His exact words were: ‘He is going to be worried sick and I don’t want him to. So let him know that I’m ok and that I will be seeing him tomorrow or I’m leaving.’” Did Leonard Snart really want to know? “He just broke a few bones and has a pretty bad concussion, Leonard. He will be fine, so, promise you won’t worry or he won’t rest.”

 

“Alright, can you let him know that he is an utter idiot and that I expect compensation for this?” He could almost hear the smirk. “I trust you to take good care of him, Doc, and give him a hard time for me.” He was so surprised about how things had changed in so little time with both teams, but it was Central City, everything was weird nowadays.

 

“I will, Leonard. Have a nice night.” She hang up before Len could say anything in return. He had the stupidest boyfriend in the goddamn world, sometimes it was surprising he loved Barry at all.


	8. Bonus 2 - Dating Captain Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len and Barry are dating, fluff ahead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I suck at fluff, I'm going to warn you now: This is no good and I need to write angst ASAP. Just so you are aware of what this pairing has done to me

This was the stupidest idea he had ever had. Maybe it was because it had been Lisa’s idea. And yet, there he was, waiting for Barry Allen to show up for his morning coffee at Jitters. It was so busy he hadn’t even had to disguise himself. He had just sat away from everyone, checking his phone every few seconds. Man, for a guy with super speed, Barry was late for everything. How did the kid even have a job? He was ready to leave when the door opened and there he was. Bright eyes, shaky smile and all nervous energy. Barry Allen. Alright. He got up and moved until he was standing right behind the young CSI. Kid needed to work on being aware of his surroundings. 

 

“My, my, fancy meeting you here, Red.” He whispered and he chuckled at the way the speedster almost jumped out of his own skin. 

 

“S-... C-...” It was so cute seeing the kid stuttering and looking around, waiting for the attack.

 

“Why don’t you try with  _ Len _ , kid.” He whispered and he smirked once he saw the Flash blush deeply. “After all, it’s my name.”

 

“What are you doing here?” What a pity, he didn’t get to hear Barry saying his name. Well, there were going to be other chances. 

 

“Well, Barry… Lisa told me what you did for her, so here I am to deliver my most sincere thank you and invite you to dinner. Tonight.” It was very much like ripping a band-aid. “What do you say?”

 

One. Two. Three… Should he leave Scarlet like this? Mouth open, eyes so wide it was like watching a cartoon. Wait, did he break the Flash? Four, five, six… This was getting ridiculous.

 

“If you don’t know how to say no, I’ll-” He was cut short, a hand pressed against his mouth and there it was again the cutest sight: Barry’s cheeks, ears and neck reddening until he was… well, scarlet. How far down did that blush go?

 

“Ok. Dinner at seven, pick a place and I’ll see you there.” Grabbing Barry’s wrist, he pulled his hand away. 

 

“Meet me at Giro’s. Tonight at seven. Don’t get cold feet.” He gave the kid a peck on the lips and turned around, smirking. Maybe he had to thanks his sister. If he got laid before the end of the week. 

  
  


By the end of the week, her sister was wearing a nice ruby pendant with matching bracelet and earrings. A ‘thank-you’ gift from Len, though she didn’t know it was a ‘thank-you’ gift. He had gotten it legally just because he had had sex with Barry the night before and mindblowing didn’t even close to what it had been like. He was looking forward to their next date on Friday. Everything had been carefully planned so he could get laid again. Now that he had Barry agreeing to a relationship with him? Hell, he planned to get laid per date! 

 

However, he hadn’t taken into account though Barry’s high libido. Monday found them lying in bed, gasping and very much sweaty, naked and covered in cum. For the first time in a very long time, Len was smiling in bliss. God, what was the kid doing to his poor old heart? He looked to Barry who was smiling as well, eyes closed. Did he…? 

 

“Ready for another round, old man?” Barry turned to lay on his side, looking at him with desire and hard as they came. “Or you need more time?”

 

Hell, he did loved the kid. He kissed him senseless, positioning himself between the meta’s legs, ready to teach the cocky brat a lesson. Or two. Maybe three, depending on how much stamina they had left by then.

  
  


And soon, they reached a month of dating. Then two. It was blissful, the ‘honeymoon stage’ as people liked to call it. Then, all hell broke loose and they had their first serious fight. Len swore later on that he couldn’t remember what what they had been talking about when shit hit the fan. He only remembered being angry and yelling and Barry leaving with tears in his eyes. Truthfully, he remembered everything. Barry had been telling him about Eobard and Zoom and other enemies he had faced as the Flash and Len started to see a pattern there: new enemy showed up, Barry got injured, kid got injured a bit more, Flash saved the day. 

 

“Being the Flash is too dangerous and enemies keep coming, why don’t you just give up and accept that you cannot fight everyone?” It hadn’t been a malicious question, he had just been wondering about his boyfriend’s lack of self preservation. 

 

“Excuse me?” Lisa had told them once that when a woman asked you to repeat something, it wasn’t because she hadn’t heard you, but because she wanted to know if you had the balls to repeat whatever you had said. He should have listened to his sister. Because Barry wasn’t a woman, but the whole ‘I dare you to repeat that’ worked for him as well, apparently.

 

“I just don’t want you to die, because one day you will get yourself killed if you don’t stop.” Really, he should have just shut up, change topics. “The pattern is obvious here, Red: New enemy, you get hurt, you fight, you get hurt again and you keep getting up until you win. Except one day, you might not get up again!”

 

The fighting escalated from there, suddenly there were screaming at each other, they tossed their skeletons at each other: Len’s need to be a criminal, Barry’s love for Iris, Len betraying the Flash, Barry going around with Oliver fucking Queen and Ray asshole Palmer - and ok, they were both obviously straight but still! - and at the end, Barry had stormed off and Len had felt so drained that he resorted to drinking himself to sleep. They stopped seeing each other after the fight. His mood got darker by the day, he would snap at anyone - even at Lisa, once - who dared to question him about it. He had been so angry all the time and he drank until he passed out every night. It took him a week to decided that they had had a nice thing going on and he didn’t want to lose it. The sex was too amazing to just let it go too. It was time to plan.

 

He had came up with a heist, a solo heist. He got a signal jammer and waited patiently, the thing on so they could speak freely. The Flash didn’t make him wait for long. 

 

“What are you doing here, Snart?” That he deserved. “I don’t have time to play with you now, I was going to have dinner with a friend.” That stung. 

 

“I wanted to apologize, kid.” But he wasn’t going to give up so easily. He showed Barry the jammer and, after checking that his friends couldn’t hear a thing, he went for the throat.

 

“Why? I was just a fling for you, a toy to entertain yourself, a toy you didn’t want to share with Oliver Queen or Ray Palmer or Iris West.” Red crossed his arms. “So, why would you apologize to someone who apparently can’t keep his legs closed?”

 

“Scarlet…” He did have said a huge amount of crap that day, he had been angry and had lost his cool. “You know I didn’t mean any of that.” And he hadn’t, he regretted those words as soon as he said them but he had been too proud to take them back while they were still fighting.

 

“Really? Because you seemed pretty sure that I was just a whore who like to sleep with all his friends.” Len took a step towards his boyfriend - they hadn’t broken up - just to see him take one back. 

 

“Red… Barry, I didn’t mean any of those things, I was an idiot, ok? But every single time you go out there I worry, I worry that you won’t come back to me.” He had rehearsed all that in front of the mirror before coming and he was glad he had taken his time to do it. “When you put on that suit, you paint a bullseye in your back and I don’t… I can’t live without you, Barry. Because I’m the idiot who fell in love with a superhero.”

 

There, he had said it and Barry was gaping again. He should start carrying a camera around for this type of situation. 

 

“You love me?” Maybe he should have said it before, but Len didn’t know how to feel, he was completely emotionally constipated, Lisa liked to state that at least once a month. “You, Leonard Snart, Captain Cold, love me?”

 

“Saying it like that makes it feel like a proposal, kid.” He smiled, maybe he should put a ring on Barry. “But yeah, I love you, Barry Allen.” 

 

“I love you too, Len.” They were grinning at each other. “Still, you need to earn my forgiveness. You can start by accepting that I won’t stop being the Flash and buying me dinner. Running up to here before dinner got me hungry.”

 

“What about your friend?” He had mentioned a friend.

 

“Have you seen Oliver Queen? He can have whoever he wants with a snap of his finger, he can deal with it.” Barry walked up to Len and kissed him. “Let’s go.”

 

At the end, Oliver wasn’t very happy about being stood up. The vigilante admitted that much during their next training session. Using pointy arrows to make his point. Barry regretted nothing.


	9. Bonus 3 - A Big Brother's Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A study on Mark Mardon and his love for his family and certain hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a reference in this chapter - because it's the last one - and if anyone gets it and post it in a comment, I'll send them a sneak peek of my next story :D

Mark Mardon might have been what normal people considered a jerk. But he was also human. Another thing he had been for a long time was  an older brother, he had for as long as Clyde had lived. Being a big bro had been the only thing he hadn’t fucked up in life - even with the life of criminals that he and Clyde had had. He had been happy taking care of Clyde, since their mother brought him home, during school and high school… For a while he had thought that that was it, he was the protector, the older sibling.Until his little brother had died, had been killed. He couldn’t get over the fact that his brother had kicked the bucket before him. Some days it was extremely strange for him to wake up and not having to worry about a brother. 

 

Well, until he kind of adopted the metahumans that had been incarcerated with him by the Flash. His protective urges had made him hate the speedster even more than he already did when his eyes had fallen upon the others that had been there - and he hadn’t known about for a while. He had hated the so-called hero because he had locked up Roy Bivolo, who was a colour-blind artist and loved his coffee with too much milk for it to be considered coffee. The Flash had also locked up Shawna Baez, whose dream was to become a nurse and save people but she had had a douche for a boyfriend for a while, the man was the one that got her wrapped in criminal life. Then Hartley Rathaway came around. A boy rejected by his own parents for something he had no control over. How was anyone supposed to control who they fall in love with? He was also rejected by the world because he was too smart for them.  

 

Last but not least, as he had just come to terms with the fact that he had gone from grieving for a dead brother to having three people to look out for, Axel came in. The kid was mad as a hatter, and had a father who was either too stupid to care for his kid or didn’t wanted to care for him, but the kid still followed his father's footsteps and loved the older Trickster. Weather Wizard hated the Senior’s guts more and more each passing day. So Mardon took the kid under his wing too and protected him as he did with the other threes. And it felt right. 

 

But, if he was honest with himself, having new siblings didn’t fix him. Some days he missed Clyde and it hurt like the first day. On those days, he could count on Roy to go for a beer and Hart for a good movie. He could count on Shawna to patch him up if he got into a street fight and Axel to joke around until he got their big bro to smile at them. It was nice having siblings again. Because he had been born to be a big brother, a protective brother. When he had his foster-siblings around, Clyde’s death wasn’t so heavy a burden.

 

Yet, the worst days were the days that he had the urge to make Detective West suffer for what he did to his little family of two. Clyde and Mardon had ran away from an abusive father and a drug addict mother. They had always looked out for each other. After so many years of doing exactly that, Mardon woke up to being alone, to having failed his brother. And those days? Not a single Rogue could make him feel better. Not even Cold, Glider or Heatwave. Those days, the hate he felt towards West was stronger than the love he felt for his family. 

 

Surprisingly enough, if it hadn’t been for Cold, he would have lost this newly found family a long time ago. Because Roy and Axel weren’t above killing but they were happy to not kill normally. Hart didn’t give a fuck about killing, little guy could be ruthless if it was for revenge but he didn’t like to take someone’s life. And Shawna - always the nurse, the caring and loving kid she was - was against killing anyone, yes, she could injure anyone when mad, she knew how to defend herself, but she never killed, would never kill if she could help it. Mark knew they wouldn’t have stood to be near a killer. So, he learned to deal with the worst days. Thanks to Cold actually.

 

On one hand,  the first rule to be a Rogue was no killing, which he always remembered when his mind wandered, repeated it like a mantra. On the other hand, he had investigated West until he knew everything about the man. He used that information to keep his cool on those days. Originally, his idea had been to make the man suffer, to kill his daughter in front of him, to make West feel what he had felt for months! And that was the thing. Mardon was a brother who had lost a sibling. And Iris West had a brother, foster-brother but that was just semantics. Barry Allen, who worked at CCPD, seemed to love his foster-sister and he was way too good-looking, not that that was the point. Mardon thought once he saw the kid that he couldn’t be the reason why the younger man stopped smiling. 

 

So, despite the fact that he wanted revenge, he found himself unable to put someone else through the same pain he had had to suffer. Because Barry Allen didn’t seem as strong as Mark, and losing a sibling was hard, painful, so much it might even break the kid. So, on his worst days, he thought of Barry Allen. He wondered if the kid would cry, would break down or if he would try to kill a ruthless metahuman capable of creating a storm with a snap of his fingers. He thought of Barry Allen’s sparkling eyes and bright smile and his desire for revenge subdued. At least for a while. 

 

So, he had several reasons to not kill Detective West or his daughter. He didn’t do it because he loved his newly found family and he wouldn’t make a stranger pay for their parents’ mistake either. So, he focused his anger on the Flash. Because the hero was a stranger.  Mardon knew nothing of the younger meta and took advantage of it. And he was also partially to blame for his brother’s early demise. So, every time he faced the hero of Central City, he made sure to be as vicious and revengeful as possible, to harm the kid until he felt lighter. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. But every time he arrived to his loft, he had someone waiting for him, to care for him and he was less angry. 

 

Every time he got beaten - but still managed to escape -, Shawna would be there with her kit to patch him up and when she left, Roy would come with a pack of beer so they could bitch about the goddamn stupid hero. Every time he won, Shawna would still show up to take care of minor injuries, but Axel would be there too, eager to hear him gloat about his latest heroic battle. Hartley would show up later with maths to help him come up with new ways to use his powers and he would let the kid take his couch to sleep if they stayed up too late. He was never going to let a kid Hartley’s age and with his looks walking home alone in the middle of the night. 

 

His world was brighter after joining the Rogues. Everything made more sense with his family around. Life was easy back then: plan a heist, fight the Scarlet Speedster, hate the man’s guts, enjoy his family. Until the whole ‘Be saved by your enemy’ incident, that was what he was calling it. The military had done a number on him and the only one there to help him was the Flash. That night, when they were both standing in the street, he had looked into the kid’s eyes, not knowing what to expect, and he was surprised when he didn't see that there was no hate there, no ill-intention, just warm protection that he had come to associate just with his family. His view of the world was shaken and destroyed by a pair of green eyes that night.

 

Afterwards, he went to Saints and Sinners, Len met him there and told him that he had people watching his back. When he left, he was happy to find there all his brothers and sister, on the couch, watching a film. Shawna had fussed over him and Roy had passed a beer. Axel asked a thousand questions and Hartley explained the science behind the machine to him. He didn't understand half of it but he smiled nonetheless, because his family was there. That night, they slept on the couch, it was uncomfortable and too tight, but Mark was happy. Mark loved each one of them and promised himself once more, that he would burn the world to the ground if it meant that his siblings were safe. 

 

Little by little, his world came back to its sense. Shawna had showed up a few weeks after in his loft, crying and she was a messed. He hadn’t inquired her, he just hugged her and let her sleep with him in his bed, hugging the woman and shushing her sobs all night, keeping her nightmares at bay. Next morning, she told her about his ex-boyfriend - a dude from college she had been seeing for two months - and Mark planned how to kill the idiot without anyone being the wiser. Hartley was the next one to show up, he didn’t say anything, just listened to music laying on top of Mark on his couch. Looking at the calendar, Mark realised it was the anniversary of his parent’s shutting him out. Another killing plan that he wasn’t going to go through. After all, the no killing rule applied to douchebags too. Roy asked him if he would model for the color-blind artist and he did, he even used the cheesy Titanic-line: ‘Paint me like one of your French girls’ and Bivolo smiled - though it didn’t reach his eyes - and painted him. Axel asked him to go out, to blow stuff up and told him about his father - sick bastard should be back in Iron Heights. Everything went back to normal in a matter of months. Or at least as normal as things would be in Central City. 

 

And Mark should have known that the Flash would destroy his view of the world sooner or later one more time. The heist planned with Roy had been mostly for fun, there wasn’t anything like fighting a God-like meta and enjoy beer afterwards, comparing injuries. But something had gone awfully wrong and he had almost lost Roy, no, he had almost killed Roy. If it hadn’t been for the Flash… the man saved Roy, as he had saved Axel and Lisa, hell, he even saved Mick - and the man was a fucking wall of brick that didn’t need saving! Still he was alive thanks to the stupid hero! So, his own debt with the Speedster kept growing and growing and how was he supposed to thanks the man - to pay back - if he knew nothing about the person under the cowl? 

 

Not only that, but he had held the kid between his arms and it had felt amazingly good. The warm body leaving an imprint on his soul. Flash’s body was lithe and fit perfectly against his. As they laid there, he couldn’t muster the will to let go of the hero, he thought though of pressing harder against the red-clasp man. Then something happened and it sent all his blood south. Flash turned around - after yelling at Roy - and ripped Mark’s shirt and dressed his leg. Mardon thought of going for it and kissing the hero senseless, telling himself that it would be just a taste. Then they left and Mark blamed the whole limping to his injured leg.

 

A few weeks later, the chance to pay back presented itself in the form of a nutjob meta that called himself Iron Patriot. The Rogues - because he wasn’t the only one indebted to the Flash, obviously, they were all suckers for skin-tight leather and cute ass heroes - had a plan in place. Distract the meta, get the Flash out of there and live to fight another day. Not even Cold could have known that the hero was too much a hero and wouldn’t back off before getting himself killed! Still they tried, Axel and his bombs and he himself with lightning - it felt fitting. Then he got whisked away and the Flash told him to run. What happened then made Mark understand something that he hadn’t see coming. The Flash calling Cold  _ Len _ . No Snart, no Cold, just  _ Len _ . He looked around, maybe he had heard wrong? But everyone shared the same shocked look. 

 

_ ‘Len, you shouldn't be here, this is dangerous. Get as far as possible. Now.’  _ That was what the hero had said to the Rogues’ leader, to his enemy. An order coated in concern. And Roy was looking at him with a raised eyebrow that screamed ‘Told you so’. Fuck! And as they saw the kid ran back into a fight that he was bound to lose, Mark looked at Leonard Snart, goggles covering his eyes but not the worry written all over his stupidly handsome face. 

 

“Mick, Lisa, Bivolo and Hart, go get the kid outta there.” They planned on the spot, best way to deal with this. “Mardon, create as much fog as possible, we need a diversion right now. Walker, you with me.” 

 

They splat, everyone had a part on this and his was to cover his family and his enemy while hiding himself out of view. It would have been so easy to crush the douchebag. But their priority was to get the hero out of there, to save and protect him. So, after they pulled the stubborn kid out of the fight, Mark sat beside Snart in the van and looked at the speedster. He looked in obvious pain but very much awake, looking back at them with curiosity. Rory and him got the hero out of the van once they reached their safehouse. He didn’t even have time to think of the implications of Barry Allen, cute ass CSI, being the Flash, because as time went on, as injuries were treated, Mardon discovered that he was going to have nightmares for the rest of his life for this and man, he deserved those nightmares. 

 

Later, when Barry Allen, the Flash, was sleeping it off with  _ Len _ by his side, Mark’s mind wandered. It wasn’t like he could help it at all. Dark thoughts and good ones, pleasurable ones, mixed together without him wanting them to. Flash’s, no, Barry’s screams and tears, painful jerking around, his lack of relief as he was cut open and healed on one side, on the other side were the images of the kid’s sweaty - Mark wanted nothing more than forget the blood - thin body, his warm skin against his hands as he held down the speedster, Barry’s beautiful green eyes tearing up and his mind filled in the blanks, changing screams for moans. It was fucked up in so many levels… 

 

But, wasn’t there a saying that said something like “The heart wants what the heart wants”? The kid was everything a man wanted, desired and Mark wasn’t above those feelings. He didn’t know when his overprotectiveness had expanded to fit not only his family, but also the speedster. When did his hate morphed into something that he wasn’t ready to name? Because it certainly wasn’t just lust, it was something else and it scared Mark to go down that path. 

 

He allowed himself to look through the door to the improvised infirmary where the kid was resting. Their fearless leader was there, looking at Barry, running his fingers through brown locks, a small smile on his lips and a loving look in his eyes. It wasn’t difficult to picture himself there, to imagine how soft the hair would feel under his fingers, how warm his hand would be between his. Yes, it scared the shit out of Mark to name the feeling, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew and it hurt. Because the hero of Central City was out of reach for him, because he already had someone else to take care of his injuries, to listen to him, to protect him when being a hero took too much, hurt too much. And that someone wasn’t Mark Mardon but Leonard Snart. And it would be so easy to hate the man’s guts, but Leonard Snart was family and Mark couldn’t even feel jealousy. Only pain. 

 

“You know, love isn’t as easy as the movies make it seem.” He looked around, Hart was laying on the couch, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “In the movies it’s easy, you love someone, someone loves you back and you live together ever after. What movies don’t tell you is that you can love someone and they can not love you back, so you fight them, try to make them notice you and still get hate instead of love.” The genius moved to a sitting position but still not meeting his big bro’s eyes. “But I saw once a TV series where a character said something that it’s true: villains don’t get happy endings. We don’t get happy endings, Mark.”

 

No, they didn’t but Snart wasn’t a villain. Deep down, Captain Cold was just a criminal with a golden heart and he deserved his happy ending. Mark was a villain, he knew that much and there wasn’t a happy ending waiting for him. But it was alright. He focused all his pain, like he had learnt to do a long time ago, and turned it into protectiveness. Mark Mardon made himself a promise then and there. He wouldn’t have his happy ending, but he was going to make sure that Leonard Snart’s happy ending was protected from anyone by any means necessary. Because Weather Wizard was a villain, but Mark was a protective older brother above everything else. 


End file.
